Janice stretched as she logged out of the VR system. After a long month of running QA on Dungeons, she had talked herself out of playing Deep Delve. New Realities had given her a great opportunity, but the massive draw of the studio, it's vast and unprecedented library of recorded sensations had stripped away her desire to play a VRMMPORG. It was just too real.

But Kevin's Dungeon had ignited a tiny spark of hope in her. After ~three~ undead themed Dungeons, with half-decayed zombies and all the sights and smells inherent to them, and a slime themed Dungeon set in an all too realistic sewer system, Janice had been ready to write it off. But the open air, the smell of the forest, and the adorable animals of the Verdant Caldera had been so different.

She sighed as she watched Robert and Kevin sit up and remove their headsets. "So," she said as Robert rolled his head to the side and cracked his neck. "How long until I can get Snuffles back?" she asked. Robert grinned at her and replied, "You know the drill, each account is locked, geographically, to their server for the first month." She turned her gaze towards Kevin, who was doing the slow blink that commonly indicated someone had spent too many hours in a VR rig. "What are the chances you live near Temple Terrace?" she asked him with a smile. "Not so much near," Kevin muttered as he rolled his shoulders and absentmindedly returned, "as smack dab in the middle, I'm off 113th."

Janice grinned triumphantly at Robert before redirecting her smile to Kevin. "I'm off Gillette, so we are practically neighbors," she said and then continued, "which means I'll be reunited with Snuffles soon!" she declared victoriously. Robert coughed, drawing her attention. "Sadly," he said, not looking sad at all, "Dungeon Developers and any QA personnel who have reviewed the Dungeon are shuffled over to an adjacent server for reasons that ought to be obvious." Janice groaned and slumped back into her chair. "I'd forgotten about that," she muttered, "kind of gave up the idea of playing after the nasty Dungeons I've QA'd."

Robert grinned and stood up, straightening his tie, and said: "Hey, you only have to wait thirty-one days until you can migrate over to Kevin's Dungeon." Kevin raised his hand, drawing Janice's attention. She heard Robert sigh and then say "Kevin? You know you're not in college anymore, I'm not your professor, I'm your boss, you can just ask me a question," he said, a note of humorous exasperation in his voice. Janice grinned at that. Kevin did seem a bit nerdy, despite his height and being in pretty good shape. Kevin responded, "Yeah, I'm guessing that bit was in the guide as well?" he asked, grinning widely. "Yes, and while it is a bit like closing the barn door after the horses are out, please kindly R.T.F.M. when you get home," Robert responded as he tiredly massaged his temples. "Will do boss," said Kevin with a wide smile.

Janice gave an internal snort. She was sure that these two were going to end up getting drunk and doing the whole "I love you, man!", "No, I love YOU, man!" comedy skit together at some point. She decided to step in and asked Kevin, "So what are you doing for the next Dungeon?" Kevin took an expression not entirely unlike that of a deer facing down headlights from twenty yards away. "Erm, next Dungeon?" he asked hesitantly. "I'm just going to do another level of the Verdant Caldera..." He trailed off as Robert groaned and sat back down, this time squeezing the bridge of his nose. "Read The Fucking Manual," Robert muttered before looking up at Kevin. "Kevin, every month you are required to have produced, submitted, and been subject to the approval of QA," he nodded towards Janice, "a new Dungeon, to be located in the newest areas of the continent."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Kevin blinked. He then leaned forward, elbows on knees, and rested his temples on his palms, fingers in his hair. He took a slow deep breath, and then looked up at Robert. "A new dungeon every month?" he asked as calmly as he could, although a slight tremor in his voice gave away his anxiety. Robert sat down in the chair next to him and said, "Yes, and while I won't go into how badly you need to start reading paperwork, let me give you a few numbers." Kevin nodded his mind racing - he'd managed to complete the Verdant Caldera in just over one hundred and sixty hours, now that he knew the system a little better, he could probab- His line of thought was cut off as Robert started reading something off his cellphone. "Eighty-six hours, seventy-nine hours, and seventy-eight hours," Robert said. Kevin just stared at him. "Those," said Robert in a gentle tone of voice, "are the Dungeons under my purview with the most time invested, excluding yours."

Kevin took a deep breath. Eighty-six. That was his nearest competitor time in terms of time invested. He let the breath out and then took another. Robert continued, "While I can't discuss the details of their Dungeons, I can tell you that they also likely spent twenty to thirty hours reading the manual, which no doubt saved them a bit of time during the design." At this statement, Kevin's heart sank. 'Fuck,' he thought to himself, 'all that time I spent fucking around in the menu system could have been saved.' Before he could continue his internal rant, he was surprised by Robert laying a hand gently on his shoulder, drawing him out of his reverie. "And while I can't discuss the details, I can assure you that the Dungeon you built will be successful. I'm going to go so far as to say wildly so." Robert smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder gently then said, "I'm sure that you aren't going to attract the hardcore raiding guilds or the power levelers. But what you are going to attract," Robert went on his smile widening into a grin "is every Animal Crossing and Pokemon player over the age of eighteen." Robert lowered his voice and said, "Trust me, Kevin, you're going to succeed."

Kevin slowly nodded. Robert was right. A hundred and sixty hours was just forty hours a week. "Sorry," he said with an embarrassed grin at Robert and then Janice. "I'm exhausted and worn down from the past two weeks, and I got a little panicky there," he said. Robert switched from a shoulder squeeze to a pat on the back, and then hauled himself up. "Get some sleep, and you'll feel better. Take tomorrow off or something, go for a ride." Kevin nodded as he stood up and stretched for a long second. Janice, at some point, had also stood up and was fiddling with her car keys. He raised an eyebrow at her as he shrugged into his jacket and picked up his helmet. "Do you want a ride home?" she asked a bit hesitantly, "you do seem really worn down, are you safe to ride?" she finished.

He considered it for a few seconds. He was worn down. He was probably ok to ride, but a colleague offering a ride home when they lived in the same neighborhood wasn't a renouncement of his motorcyclist lifestyle. Kevin knew that he took the whole bike-life thing a bit too far sometimes. He'd made being a motorcyclist a cornerstone of his self-identity. Still, he was tired, she did live closeby, and most importantly, Janice had liked his Dungeon. He nodded, both to himself and to Janice and said: "Yeah, that is probably a good idea, I can get a ride back tomorrow to pick up bikey." Janice grabbed her purse and motioned him to follow her back through the maze of cubicles to the elevators. As the elevator door closed, he saw Robert shoot them a thumbs up.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Robert watched the elevator door close and grinned to himself. 'The Verdant Caldera,' he thought to himself as the other set of elevator doors opened, and he headed up towards his office, 'is going to be a real money maker.' He considered the various animal pet options Kevin had created and wondered just how exactly they were going to conflict with the various summons and charms in the game. As he reached his office, he sank into his chair and fired up his PC. Robert decided to dump this on the game balance team's lap. He opened outlook and wrote an email to the team, advising them of what Kevin had created, the current system the game engine had applied to the creation, and informed them that removing what the Dungeon Developer had built was not an option and that they ought to either leave it as is or implement a workaround.

He then leaned back into his chair. "Two more days," he said to himself quietly. He knew that launch day was going to be a nightmare. Hopefully, nothing catastrophic would go wrong, but no one expected a perfectly smooth launch. No, what he wasn't looking forward to was the week after launch. After everyone had been given a bit of time to revel in the game. Once the more intelligent players started to ask questions. Questions like, "How exactly did New Realities capture the sensation of being bitten by a wolf?" And then, while those questions were being asked, players would eventually end up in the Dungeons, and the questions would become more pointed. Sensations like having your hand cut off by an axe, or stepping into a foot deep pool of lava were going to be questioned.

Robert frowned as his thoughts raced through familiar paths. He knew that he bore some responsibility. He has been the one to suggest the Saudis. He had offered up the idea that being as the Saudis routinely cut people's hands off for theft, why not pay to slap a VR rig on the criminal, and offer them up the sensation recording as well, in case they ever wanted to use it as a deterrent. The Saudis had been very accommodating and had offered to allow New Realities to record all the sensations from their various legal punishments, in exchange for the sensation recordings being copied to them. Flogging, stoning, hanging, and eye-gouging had all been recorded. Beheading had been a bit of a challenge, but they had managed it.

He grimaced as he thought back to the time he had spent over there. Robert knew tonight would be whiskey night, but his mind demanded he reflect on the events. He'd been very grateful to return to Florida after a few weeks of recording the various punishments the Saudis inflicted on their criminals. The library of sensations he'd returned with had started a debate between the developers and their own legal team that had raged for months. "Fucking Lieverman," he muttered as he opened a bottle of water. Eli Leiverman, one of his fellow development leads, had taken his idea of enlisting the aid of the Saudis and ran with it. He'd gone to a few countries on the pacific rim and in Africa. He had returned as the debate was ending, and introduced a host of new recordings into the sensation library.

It turned out that bribing a tyrant in an impoverished nation to slowly lower someone into lava while wearing a VR rig cost less than having the equipment flown there. And Eli had been very busy. Robert sighed. The legal team had assured the developers that Eli had been very careful to include legal documentation for each sensation that included affidavits from the governments that provided the subjects for the VR recordings, that declared the crimes and punishments of the criminals. Robert had led the faction of developers that wanted to significantly reduce the severity of the painful sensations included in Deep Delve. He had ultimately won, although there were still two developer leads that would argue to have the sensations present at fifty percent of the recorded intensity. Robert thought the agreed-upon ten percent was more than enough. They needed players to want to keep playing the game, not to be put off by pain. The ten percent was just enough to provide an incentive not to charge into danger deliberately.

Robert stood up and sighed as he grabbed as his coat. Tonight was going to be one those nights. And he couldn't say he didn't deserve it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"And another thing! We need to be able to have our pets have babies!" said a loud and excited voice as Julie's front door banged open. Shaking the suds off her hands and then wiping them on the dishtowel, she walked around the doorway to the living and stopped in shock. It was not, as she had thought, Mel coming over with Erica or Nicole. No, it was Kevin, coming home with someone she had never met before. Julie knew all of Kevin's friends because, with two exceptions, she had introduced him to them. Kevin gave her a tired and grin and then shushed the unidentified girl by placing a finger to her lips and saying, "Sssshhh.... civilians are present!"

Julie knew she was a people person. She'd always been quick to pick up on social cues, which was one of the reasons she'd ended up being a successful real estate agent. So, she instantly realized that this must be one of the people Kevin was working with at New Realities. Smiling, she stepped forward and offered a hand to the girl as she said, "Hi, I'm Julie, Kevin's bestie and roommate!" To which the girl responded, "I'm Jane, I work with Kevin," she glanced up at Kevin, who appeared to be suffering some sort of system glitch and shook Julie's hand then continued, "well, kinda anyways."

At this point, Kevin's mind apparently re-engaged, and he said: "You're doing dishes?" in a tone of voice that suggested that apocalypse had indeed begun, and a check for winged porcine in the sky above wouldn't be amiss. Julie huffed. "Yes, I'm doing dishes, they've piled up and haven't been done in two weeks!" she exclaimed. Jane seemed a bit uncomfortable at the direction this was taking. Kevin responded, "I haven't cooked or eaten anything that didn't come in a carton or wrapper in two weeks." Julie paused and then said, "But you walked by them!" Kevin grinned and replied, "Dude, are you complaining about having to wash the dishes you dirtied to cook the pizza I bought you so that you wouldn't starve yourself to death while I was living on protein shakes and energy bars?" "Damn right, I am!" Julie said with a grin and punched him in the shoulder, "it's clearly your fault for buying me the frozen pizzas in the first place! Jane understands, right?"

Jane raised her hands and said, "I'm Switzerland here, although," she punched Kevin in the other shoulder and continued, "protein shakes and energy bars? No wonder you're wrecked." Julie nodded her agreement. Kevin shrugged and raised his hands in surrender. "Ok, yeah, I didn't take great care of myself over the past couple weeks," he admitted, then said, "but I made my deadline, and I have way more time to finish my next project." Jane patted him on the same shoulder she'd punched a few seconds ago and said, "Yeah, take it easier on the next one. If you want to ride in with me tomorrow, just shoot me a text before eight." Jane then pulled a sharpie from her pocket, uncapped it with her teeth, and grabbed Kevin's hand, writing her number on the back of it. She then waved goodbye and walked back out the front door, closing it behind her.

"So..." Julie said with a wide grin, "what were you getting up to that has left you needing a ride this morning?" Kevin groaned and walked over to the couch, pausing to glare at her as he threw himself down onto it. "Nothing," he grumbled as he squirmed around, getting comfortable. She gave an internal huff and walked over to the couch, sitting at the end, picking up his feet and placing them in her lap. She then started unbuckling his boots. Kevin lifted his legs to let her tug them off. "You have been burning the candle at both ends," she said as she set his boots down under the end table. Kevin made a sort of half grunted acknowledgment sound. Julie wriggled out from under his feet and said, "You can take a quick nap, but Melody is going to come over in a while, so expect to be awoken." Receiving a grunt that she chose to view as an indication that he had not only heard her but was enthusiastic about her plans for the evening, Julie returned to the kitchen.

It was nice to see Kevin bringing someone home, or in this case, being brought to his own home as it were, even if it was a coworker. Ever since he had gotten the new job at New Realities, her life had suffered a tragic lack of Kevin. Hopefully, with him being done with this project, whatever it was, and having more time for the next, she'd get more Kev time. Finishing the last of the dishes, she went further and wiped down the counters and the kitchen table. She looked around the kitchen and nodded to herself. Good enough. Melody was due to be over with a sack full of burgers in another hour or so.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Melody had just finished tucking in the clean sheets around her dad when the doorbell rang. "I'll be back in a minute dad," she said and squeezed his hand, "that should be the nurse I've got coming in to help out while I'm on vacation." Her father gave her a smile, and shakily squeezed her hand. She hurried to the door, wiping away a tear. She knew that her dad was ok with her going on vacation, even if it was just her playing a game for a week, but she still felt guilty about having someone else take care of him. Shaking it off, she plastered on a smile and answered the door. A thin young man dressed in scrubs with a backpack at his feet offered her his hand and said, "Hello, I'm Jackson, the at-home health care provided you hired from care.com." Melody shook his hand and then took the paperwork he offered with the other. "Hi Jackson, I'm Melody, come on in, and I'll introduce you to David, my dad," she said as she stepped aside and gestured for him to come in.

Jackson looked just like his photograph on the website. Thin face, pale skin but no freckles, brown eyes and short-cropped blonde hair. She walked him into her dad's room. "Dad," she said as she took his hand, "this is Jackson, he's going to be covering for me while I get my Deep Delve on." Jackson stepped around the bed and shook his other hand, saying "Nice to meet you, David, I know I'm a poor substitute for Melody, but we'll figure it out together," he said with a smile. Melody restrained a sniffle as her dad gave Jackson an awkward handshake and smile. Her dad squeezed her hand, let it go, and gave her a shaky thumbs-up. She smiled at her dad, then hurriedly left the room before she started crying. Melody headed into the bathroom and sat down on the toilet for a few minutes as she cried. She hated crying. "Get ahold of yourself," she muttered as she pinched herself. Melody stood up and looked herself in the eyes in the bathroom mirror. "You aren't going away. You aren't even leaving the house. You'll still be here if he really needs you."

Stepping out of the bathroom, she almost ran into Jackson, who appeared to be waiting for her. She sighed. It was times like this she really wished she could lift an eyebrow like Kev. Jackson gave her a small smile and gestured through the doorway to the kitchen. Melody stepped around him and led him into the room, where they both sat down, and she smoothed out the paperwork she had inadvertently crumpled earlier. Jackson watched as she read the paperwork and initialed and signed in the designated places. When she handed it back, he checked the initials and signatures, nodded to her, and placed it into his backpack. "So," he began hesitantly, "Deep Delve?" he asked. Melody nodded, trying to shake off the guilt she was feeling and said, "Yep, I'm taking my vacation, and I'll be logged in, like, all sixteen hours a day." She paused, and said, "Unless dad needs me - if he needs me, send me a message through the console." Jackson smiled at her and nodded before saying, "Based on his medical records, I don't think anything is going to come up." He paused, looking uncertain then went on, "Look, I can tell you're a bit down about this, but trust me, he'll be in good hands, and you're all of thirty feet away if he needs you. He wants you to have a good time and enjoy your vacation." Melody nodded at him, and the conversation may have gotten uncomfortable had her mom not pulled into the driveway. Grateful for the distraction, Melody stood up and said: "Let me introduce you to my mom, Renee, she'll be trading off with you."

After introducing Jackson to her mom, Melody went upstairs and took a shower, changed clothes, and started considering where she should grab burgers from. She'd promised Julie they would hangout tonight, as they both knew she was going to deep down the rabbit hole of Deep Delve for the next week. Wayback Burgers was close. Plus, they had a truly awesome Reuben, which Kev would love, and their mushroom and swiss was great. Decision made, she headed downstairs, determined to force herself out her funk.

"I'm back bitches, and I'm packin' hot meat!" Melody yelled as she threw open Kevin and Julie's door. Her eyes fell on Kevin as he shot up from the couch, eyes wild and hair a bedhead mess. "Dude," she said as she swung the door shut behind her. "You look like shit, but I got a Rueben for you," she finished. Kevin appeared to have regained his senses, and he stumbled to his feet and towards the kitchen, and Melody darted down the hallway to Julie's room. She went to open Julie's door and crashed into her friend as Julie pulled open the door and tried to rush out. "Dude!" she said as she held up the burger bag in supplication, "I come bearing hot meat!" Julie grabbed the bag and headed towards the kitchen as she said, "Yeah, I heard ya when you kicked down the door. I'm guessing Kevin is awake?" "He was headed to the kitchen," Melody replied with a smile.

Bounding into the kitchen after Julie, Melody found Kev sitting at the table, his head cradled in his hands and a bottle of water in front of him. She grabbed a bottle of water off the counter for herself and slammed down in the seat next to him. "Rueben?" Kevin said hopefully, still face down to the table. Julie shuffled out the sandwiches, and Melody tore into her mushroom and swiss as Kevin slowly unwrapped and began to eat his rueben. "So," she said as she swallowed a huge bite of sandwich, "I'm fucking done for the week, the nurse showed up, I gotta cover my dad tomorrow during the day and then it's fucking Deep Delve time!" Kevin muttered something that sounded like "Just in time" into his sandwich. "Just in time for what?" Melody asked excitedly. Kevin gave her the Vetinari eyebrow and said, "NDA." She grinned at him and asked, "So you're gonna play, right?" Kevin nodded and replied, "Yeah, I'm gonna play, but due to my employment at New Realities and a few other restrictions, I won't be on the same server as you for the first month."

Melody pouted and said, "Well, that kinda sucks. How bout you, Julie, gonna keep poor lonely little old me company in Deep Delve?" Julie pointed her sandwich at Melody and said, "Lonely? There are going to be like ten million people playing!" Before she could respond, Kevin grunted out "ten k," from around his rueben. "Huh?" she asked, nudging him with her foot. Well, kicking really. It was his fault for sitting so far away that her legs couldn't easily reach. He paused to rub his leg and deploy his sad Kev look before replying, "Each server is set to accommodate ten thousand players from a geographical region." He took a drink of water and continued, "They told me that before I signed the NDA." Melody nodded. She hadn't known that, and having done a metric shit ton of research, she was pretty sure that New Realities hadn't released that information. But if they told Kevin before he signed, it was fair game. "Anything you can tell me that I don't know?" she asked hopefully. Kevin swallowed the last bite of his reuben and finished off his water. "The opening cinematic is apparently ten minutes long, and I've been assured it is absolutely going to cause everyone to flip their shit." Melody grinned as Kevin stood up and headed towards his bedroom. She fucking loved cinematics.